diff --git a/Documentation/config/credential.txt b/Documentation/config/credential.txt
index 9d01641c28..512f31876e 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/credential.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/credential.txt
@@ -28,3 +28,9 @@ credential.<url>.*::
 
 credentialCache.ignoreSIGHUP::
 	Tell git-credential-cache--daemon to ignore SIGHUP, instead of quitting.
+
+credentialStore.lockTimeoutMS::
+	The length of time, in milliseconds, for git-credential-store to retry
+	when trying to lock the credentials file. Value 0 means not to retry at
+	all; -1 means to try indefinitely. Default is 1000 (i.e., retry for
+	1s).
diff --git a/builtin/credential-store.c b/builtin/credential-store.c
index 5331ab151a..ae3c1ba75f 100644
--- a/builtin/credential-store.c
+++ b/builtin/credential-store.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include "builtin.h"
+#include "config.h"
 #include "lockfile.h"
 #include "credential.h"
 #include "string-list.h"
@@ -58,8 +59,11 @@ static void print_line(struct strbuf *buf)
 static void rewrite_credential_file(const char *fn, struct credential *c,
 				    struct strbuf *extra)
 {
-	if (hold_lock_file_for_update(&credential_lock, fn, 0) < 0)
-		die_errno("unable to get credential storage lock");
+	int timeout_ms = 1000;
+
+	git_config_get_int("credentialstore.locktimeoutms", &timeout_ms);
+	if (hold_lock_file_for_update_timeout(&credential_lock, fn, 0, timeout_ms) < 0)
+		die_errno(_("unable to get credential storage lock in %d ms"), timeout_ms);
 	if (extra)
 		print_line(extra);
 	parse_credential_file(fn, c, NULL, print_line);